Well, I am taking up a suggestion to write some pamphlets for the doula
services in Manhattan, rather than venting my frustraiton about the doula
who made the mom wait to feed her baby for three hours of screaming with a
dehydrated baby as a result.  I know this will have better results and I
know that I did not observe the doula first hand.  But, thank you Janice
Reynolds for giving me an outlet for my pent up sarcasm and frustration.

This may be over the top, but I don't care.  Here's what I sent:

***************
Dear Annie:

I am shocked that you would call a breastfeeding mother a militant mommy if
she happens to let a little breast show while trying to nurse her child.  I
happen to be a nutritional scientist.  I have a MPH from Johns Hopkins and
a PhD in nutritional sciences from Cornell University.  The research about
breastfeeding has been in existence for well over 20 years.  I hardly
consider myself radical.  As a scientist who focused on nutrition
throughout the world, I can guarantee that your values are NOT the norm.
Most cultures would disagree with you.

As an American whose roots are in the dustbowl, I STILL have to disagree
with you.  My grandmother and all her sisters grew up in Missouri and
nursed all their children during the depression.  They were farm wives and
taught in one room school houses.  They were nononsense women. They did not
go hide in a closet, bathroom, or other inconvenient out of the way place
to nurse because they had to work and work hard and they needed to get ALL
of their jobs done.  They would be shocked at your ridiculous suggestion
that a baby's nutritional needs are something scandalous that should be
hidden.  And then they would laugh about how the silliness and
impracticality of what you suggest.

Hungry babies DO have a preference to not have their heads covered and feed
in the dark.  How would you like your head stuffed under a hot blanket
while you ate - or to have to wait to eat when you were really hungry until
you could find a bathroom stall where you could sit on the toilet and eat?

In this case, I suggest you go BACK to traditional values where breasts
served their God-given function and not some silly sexually exploitative
one.  The Bible, the Torah, and the Koran ALL talk about nursing children
to two years of age and there is no way that a toddler is going have its
head stuffed under a blanket to nurse.  It is only during the 1950s that
these ridiculous ideas got started.  Have you been reading too many Playboy
magazines lately?

Sincerely, Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC
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